This morning I took part in the Cruise Intervals #1 Zwift group workout on London’s Classique circuit.
I’ve had a frustrating start to the week in terms of cycling and I’m not sure this was the very best way for me to get back on track.
Simply put, late night work commitments wiped me out last night – a 12 hour day meant zero time (or desire) to ride when I finally did get home. There’s something quite demoralising about starting and ending the work day in the dark.
Anyway, this morning I decided to claw back some of the over-worked hours by starting late. This meant an hour extra in bed, followed by a session of Zwift before work.
I’ve had in mind that I’d consider the 2×15 minute FTP interval workout some time soon. And maybe that would have been this morning.
However, last night just as I was getting into bed, I took a quick scan through the Zwift Companion App’s events for this morning, and spotted this Cruise Intervals session which looked like it might be a good fit. Also, when I woke up this morning, the prospect of getting my bike gear on and putting in two hard efforts just wasn’t that appealing.
Now, with that said, this mornings workout turned out to be more intense than I had expected.
Partly this was because I simply misjudged the workout, and partly due to the way I went about the first block of work.
The workout started with a blast of 30 seconds at 220w, and then over/unders alternating between 180w and 190w.
The mistake I made was to push at over 100rpm for the first 8 minutes / first full block. Silly me.
There is a reason behind this, though perhaps I – as usual – over estimated my abilities.
I’ve been watching Ash Beech cycling videos – mainly races – on YouTube, and I’ve noticed he pedals at a very high cadence – typically over 100rpm.
I figured I would give this a shot, and see where I sit as a comparative measurement of my fitness.
Long story short, I already knew Mr. Beech was a machine. Now I am left with no doubt in my mind.
Keeping a high cadence is definitely something I continue to work on, but I’m a long way off a consistent 100+ rpm.
As a result of this first effort at over 100rpm average, I had thrashed myself by the time we got to the end of the first block.
The two minute respite was very welcomed, but on the short side, and jumping into the next block there was no way I could keep up that cadence. I mentally aimed for 95rpm where possible, but feel I was closer to 90 throughout.
I don’t regret trying to push myself at that higher cadence. I have to experiment. I generally feel I prefer a higher cadence, also. Lower cadences tend to feel like I’m working a different set of muscles, or something. I’m not quite sure… I guess the word grind / grinding is very fitting.
One thing I found frustrating during this workout was the very low speed we were travelling at. I noticed some of the front riders were pushing high wattages – over 4w/kg on their “on” blocks, and I was pushing around 2.8w/kg.
So to come out of the workout with less than 20km covered in 55minutes was fairly frustrating.
Were we travelling at the speed of the slowest rider?
In terms of meeting my weekly riding goals, this felt like a bad way to start the week for that reason.
However, in terms of starting the day, it felt really good.
It’s been a long while since I’ve done a workout before starting work, and I do miss it. I genuinely cannot wait until I can work remotely again. Commuting absolutely sucks. What a waste of time that could so demonstrably be better spent.
Bashing out 481 calories before work was also met with a challenge when finally getting to the office:
Cakes.
The work we did last night was “celebrated” with food, as offices are so accustomed to doing. Pizza here, beers there, cakes for this and that.
Then sit around on your arse all day. What a recipe for success.
Anyway, the main thing is I have broken my duck for the week.
There’s plenty more work to be done, however, if I want to meet the 100km weekly riding goal AND hit a Tacx Software video climb.
I’ve effectively used my two rest days for the week already. Typically that would be Monday and Friday.
It looks like I’m going to do 5 in a row now.
Nothing wrong with that, as such, but not something I want to make a habit of.
Probably one of these rides will be a low intensity blue zone ride.
I’m thinking tomorrow I will get back on the Sweet Spot Training.
I’m still of the opinion that that workout is the best thing on Zwift right now.
Or who knows, maybe 2x 15s… I need to check out how long that ride takes to complete.
